The Stork OTC Has Landed to Help Make Your Baby Dreams a Reality + Giveaway

This post is brought to you by The Stork OTC and the Motherhood. All opinions are my own.

National Infertility Awareness week is coming up soon (April 19-25). The goal of the week is to raise awareness about the millions of couples that have difficulty conceiving. As someone who spent six years trying to get pregnant, I’m pretty aware of infertility every moment of every day. I was one of the lucky ones. In the end, after those six long, painful years, I had my son. That was ten years ago. He’s my one and only. The ship has sailed on me having any more kids.

While my dream of becoming a mom came true, so many other women are still struggling to make their dream a reality. I know from experience how incredibly painful and devastating it is to go through infertility. It hurts like nothing I can even describe. The only way I can describe it to someone who hasn’t lived it: think about how much you love your child. Now imagine if time was rewound and you were told that you could never feel that feeling, that bond, that intense connection to the thing we call “Motherhood.” Maybe you’re thinking “well, I wouldn’t know what it felt like, so how can I miss something I never felt.” Trust me, you can.

Since I deeply connect and understand what infertility feels like, I am passionate about helping connect couples with ways to help them reach their dreams. Back in September of 2013, I told you about the Stork assisted reproductive technology. At that time, the only way to get it in the US was through the online store. They were working hard to get it into pharmacies. That has finally happened.

The Stork OTC Has Landed

The Stork OTC is now available in CVS Pharmacies across the US. It’s also available in Target and at Walgreens.com and Drugstore.com. What is The Stork OTC? Basically, it’s an assisted reproductive technology (ART) device that you can use in the privacy of your own home. It’s designed to help deliver the sperm closer to where it needs to be: your cervical opening.

You know how babies are made, right? We don’t need to have that talk, do we? Because honestly, I stink at that talk. I just had it with my son and it came out horrible. He was totally grossed out and STILL confused about the whole “egg” concept. So assuming that you ALL know where babies come from, you know that the sperm have to make quite the journey for itty-bitty little guys (the sperm, guys, the sperm, not the biological delivery instrument!).

Now, in the ideal circumstance, your baby dance is going all fantastic, you both have that “magical moment” at the same time. Your mutual fluids mingle in a harmonious way. His guys launch out of the gate, your girly parts contract to sort of welcome them to the party. The sperm gets to its destination in a timely manner.

However, there are like a million and one ways that this can go wrong. He may not have enough friends to bring to the party. You may not both “arrive” to the party at the same time, so you miss that lovely contracting thing (yes, Virginia, there is a biological reason for orgasms). His guys may stagger a bit to the finish line or, you know, die off before they get there. Your environment may be hostile. Our biology isn’t always perfect.

By delivering the sperm right to the opening of your cervix, The Stork OTC is basically taking the sperm, putting him in a taxi (albeit a sterile one) and driving it right to your front door. Except you get to do it in your own bedroom instead of doctor’s office. You also get to actually DO IT while doing it, if you want to. So it puts the intimacy back into trying to conceive.

On the other hand, you don’t NEED to have intercourse to use The Stork OTC. It can be used by LGBT couples who want to either use a friend’s donor sperm or their own sperm with a surrogate woman friend, women with disabilities who physically can’t have intercourse and single women with donor sperm from a trusted friend.

The Stork OTC is the ONLY FDA-approved ART cleared for over-the-counter sales to consumers. For couples struggling with infertility, it’s a great first step before moving on to more expensive options. It has about a 10-20% success rate, which is similar to the success rate for IUI (a similar procedure performed in a clinical setting). I know to the casual observer that sounds like a low success rate, but even IVF only has about a 29% success rate (with 22% resulting in live birth).

The Stork OTC retails for $79.99. Visit the store locator to find out where to buy. Also, before you go, Rinovum® Women’s Health and The Stork OTC have partnered with RESOLVE to support National Infertility Awareness Week. I’d love it if you could check out their social media ideas on how to raise awareness. Some ideas are as simple as adding a little ribbon icon to your Facebook profile picture. I did it in just about three seconds.

The Stork OTC Trial Giveaway

Enter below for a chance to win a trial of the Stork OTC. I know this is kind of a private thing, so if you don’t feel comfortable commenting under your own name, go ahead and use a pseudonym. Only I see your email address. For the comment entry, I’d love to hear from you what is the one thing you think people should never say to a woman dealing with infertility? For me, it was “it will happen when it happens.” What does that even mean?!? Anyway, back to giveaway details.

Giveaway is open to US residents, age 18+ (I’m going with legal requirements here, I’m not saying that 18 is old enough to have a baby, I’m not saying it isn’t, so no comments there, okay?). It ends on April 25th.